Monday, October 22, 2012

Cloth Diapers

I wanted to try cloth diapers for Lydia after hearing several friends rave about how much they like them. The main attraction for me was the statement that cloth diapers don't leak as badly as disposables do. This was after a period of me getting pooped on by several different babies (and before Lydia was born). And then the whole save money, create less waste deal was an added plus. Well. Cloth diapers are fine, but after Lydia outgrows hers I'm not planning to buy more. As far as I'm concerned, their biggest advantage is that they are WAY cuter than disposables. They do seem to leak less, but not enough to really make a difference. My biggest complaint about them is how often Lydia has to be changed when she wears them. I frequently have to change her after 30 minutes if she's in cloth because she gets uncomfortable being wet & cries. I try to change her frequently no matter what kind of diaper she's in, but every 30 minutes is more often than I want to change diapers. I don't know what they do to disposables to help babies feel dry, but whatever it is it's magical. If anyone has a solution to this problem, I'd love to try it. Otherwise, we'll be sticking to disposables in future.

5 comments:

Nat said...

Haha glad to hear you're switching back to disposables. When I saw the title of your post I thought "oh no, yet another way Rachel has bested me. . ." so I'm relieved to hear that cloth diapers really aren't all that. I've never even been tempted to try.

Kirsten Treff said...

I've used cloth diapers, and it really depends on the kinds you use. I have a large supply (for at any given time, I'm diapering 2 kids!) of BumGenius One Size diapers (http://www.bumgenius.com/one-size.php). They are wonderful. The microfiber lining wicks away and I change them as often as I would with disposables. My main incentive is cost. I spent about $500 on ALL my diapers, and have now used the same ones for 4 years and now onto 3 kids. I have literally saved thousands of dollars in diapers. And the one size diapers can be used from 8-35 lbs, so you don't need to buy a bunch of different sizes.

I know cloth diapering is not for everyone. But if you want to try another kind out, I highly suggest it. You can often find them on craigslist for cheaper, and try them out before buying a stash of new ones.

Nat said...

p.s. If you want the diapers to be cuter, just buy a few diaper covers to put over the disposables. I used them here and there when Bennett was tiny, but once he got bigger it was just more of a pain than anything else. But for those first 6 months before he started solids I thought they were helpful in stopping leaks since it added an extra layer, and often would keep the mess from getting onto his pants (or worse, me)

Clement Park Ward Youth Trek said...

I'm impressed that you tried them at least! I don't think I could be convinced to try them :)

Mommy Anthropologue said...

Don't give up so soon. I don't know about the frequency of your baby but newborns do need to be changed a lot. It was a great day when grace started slowing down with the changes and I could wash every 3 days instead of every 2. I understand the desire to change to the ease of disposables, but every time grace does use them I'm always convinced that I will deal with the pro/con's of cloth over disposable.
Tori